Design Wall Monday--Plaidish2 Progress

 Design Wall Monday--see more design wall beauties on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I got the final two rows attached to the Plaidish2 quilt top.  

This is a big quilt already, and will grow another few inches in each direction after the outer borders are added.  I spent a couple of hours cutting up colors from my precut 2.5" scrap drawer, which is completely full!  The outer border is assembled in groupings, so lots of mixing and matching will be happening.  

I love using my rotating Omnigrid mat and a small rotary cutter for trimming jobs like this.  

Caught a couple of crows that landed in the backyard--very unusual to see them here.  I watch flocks of them head inland almost every evening, but they don't often stop!  Our hills and lawns are still very green from all the wet weather these past couple of months, though the snow on the local mountains has melted. My favorite volunteer flowers did bloom recently, after a several year absence due to the drought. 

This patch is below the bridge I pass over every day on my way to work.  So pretty. 

I'd say these flower spikes were about 18-20" tall.  Lots of poppies in bloom in different areas, too, including my small backyard patch.  The garden centers have been crowded with folks putting in spring plantings.  I have avoided going on the weekends but plan to get some flowers soon. 

Sewing, Quilting, Binding

I've spent a lot of time recently sewing, quilting and binding--If only those activities worked off more calories!  

First up, a baby quilt that has been waiting for the already-made binding to be attached and finished. 

Entirely from stash, with a lot of pink fat quarters pulled from the fat quarter drawer. Many of the black and white prints were leftover from the baby quilt I made our now 7 year old grandson. 

The monkey print was also from that baby quilt.  The gray print was leftover from another quilt back as well. Using it up!  I had the measuring tape print awhile too--I thought it was fun for a baby quilt. 

The "Make the Connection" charity quilt was also finished with a white print binding, but this pic is only of the finished top.  Free pattern on American Patchwork and Quilting magazine website, by Jo Kramer. My sister and I are rejoining our local Modern guild and I will donate these two. 

While looking for something else in the Hoosier Cabinet, I pulled out the project box with the Plaidish2 blocks.  The A and B block components were all finished last Fall and I had  sewn together  just a couple of rows.  I think this got abandoned for Sewtopia prep. 

A and B block sewn together. 

As of dinnertime tonight, all these rows are together.  Two more rows to add before the center is done.  I did not cut any of the outer row C blocks yet, wanting to avoid too many repeat fabrics.  The Plaidish and Plaidish2 patterns are free on Kitchen Table Quilting. She has a lot of Freebie tutorial patterns. 

Next project to cut and sew up is a baby quilt for our next grandson, due in a couple of months.  I have a plan and fabric selected.  More on that later...

Design Wall Monday--Plaidish2 blocks

Design Wall Monday, this Labor Day Holiday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Happy Labor Day!  

I only needed two more of the A blocks for the Plaidish2 Quilt, and finished those up last night after languishing all day in our un-airconditioned house during a late summer heat wave---it got up to 102 degrees at my house and was triple-digit in most of California all day.  There was some slow stitching while sweltering, but the sewing machine stayed off until later in the evening when we could finally open the doors and windows to a cool breeze. 

White-on-white does not make for exciting updates!  I'm working on the area to the right of the center flower.. I like this needle-minder best as the legs hold my needle :) 

We had a lovely sunset with clouds and a breeze.  

Artsy-Fartsy try at reflected clouds in the half moon window with the half moon in the sky. 

Long after sunset and with the house cooler, I set to getting the Plaidish2 blocks sewn up.  I only needed a couple more of the large A blocks, and just a few of the B blocks as well.  

The Plaidish/Plaidish2 quilts are free patterns by Erica of  Kitchen Table Quilting.  The Plaidish2 pattern uses more mediums than any other value, so uses up a lot of scraps that most people have.   I decided to wait until I have the center completed before making the C block borders from my remaining mid-value scraps.  I have a lot of repeats in my fabrics and I think it may be easier that way to avoid  same fabrics touching.  If I need more variety, there are plenty of scraps to choose from around here!

My niece Hannah was gifted the first Plaidish Quilt I made last year.  

Another Plaidish Quilt will definitely be made, though I think I will use the designer's suggestion to choose a single fabric for the larger dark squares, as I don't have nearly as many darks in my stash! This pattern used up a lot of skinny strips from my precut scrap drawers, which was great.  Ok, off to sew!

Design Wall Monday--August 1

Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I spent some pleasant piecing time with the Plaid-ish2 project.  I need 20 of these A blocks and had 10 made already.  The  project box contained all the precut scraps cut into sizes for the biggest block in the free pattern by Kitchen Table Quilting.

 It was warm and humid this week so I opted to use a seam roller instead of setting up the ironing board.  It was easy to roll as I added each row to the "A" block.  

I somehow managed to pick the same square for the top row's center slot for these two blocks.  No matter, they will not touch each other in the final layout.  I need to make a bunch more of the B blocks, too, and have not started any of the C blocks.  It was nice to just sit and piece at the sewing machine. 

Some slow stitching also happened on the weekend. 

DMC Winter Bouquet kit.  I added more pink and green/yellow-green details.  I am getting closer to finishing most of the detail work before adding the white blossoms to this bouquet. Lots of surface stitching will be done after all the cross-stitching is complete. 

Happy August!

Design Wall Monday--April 18

 Design Wall Monday--see more Design Walls at Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I did not spent much time at my machine the past week, so only a few new blocks to show. 

Memory Lane block laid out.  The folds in the cream print were ironed before assembly.  I have not gotten any faster at sewing these large blocks--I have to check the placement and sewing order in the book every time! This pattern is in a Laps from Fats book, by Ellen Replogle.  

I really liked how this one turned out--and at the 11th block finished, it signaled the home turn for the 20 blocks needed for the quilt top.  This is a no borders quilt so once switcheroo and sewing all the blocks together is complete, it will be a finished top. 

Another Plaidish2 block done as a leader ender. I might need to change the row 2 end rectangle on the far right, it is really too dark to be a medium.  I can probably just use the backside!  Lots more piecing in my future.  I need to prep another quilt top for quilting at home, and really want to send out another to the long-armer.  

Inspiration Sewing Madness

The sewing room has been humming with all kinds of projects!  Inspiration hits and I enter a "must sew now!" session.  

Thanks to encouragement from several commenters, the fat quarter miscutting was rescued on the Memory Lane quilt. 

To my great amazement, sewing together all the squares resulted in the exact size strip I needed. 

All cutting completed and ready to start switching up the fabrics for the blocks.  I originally fell in love with this Connecting Threads line called Oh My Darling because of the two green prints, which I purchased in yardage to make a Kim Diehl lap quilt called Twilight Hopscotch. 

I finished this quilt during the first year of the pandemic.  I added an extra row of stars and chains to make it longer. One of my favorite quilts ever! 

I finished another A block for the Plaidish2 quilt so I could lay it out with the B blocks I've made so far and check out the plaid.  Sew much scrappy! My sister pointed out all the fabrics that were from her scrap piles :)  Lots more sewing to do on this one. The smaller pieces are 2.5" wide before sewing. 

I added a bunch of details to the pieces for the Bookshelf quilt I'm making my niece Enna. 

Here's all the pieces so far, not in any final arrangement at all.  I need to decide on fabric for the shelves so I can make more design decisions.  A design wall would sure be handy for this!

Lastly, THIS Squirrel leapt out of the precuts bin!  I may have gotten the charm pack as a freebie at Sewtopia or won it at guild, I don't recall.  I had an APQ magazine out with a charity quilt pattern. 

 The Make The Connection free pattern is by Jo Kramer and her daughter Kelli from Jo's Country Junction.  It is comprised of two blocks and is super simple to put together. using 5" charms  The bright blue solid I pulled from stash is just barely large enough to make the baby size quilt, so I will have to cut carefully--obviously not my strong point, lol, but will be fun to put together. 

  Last summer I finally quilted the one I made using random mini charms and donated it to guild.

The fast and easy walking foot quilting was fun to do.  Lots of sewing and quilting coming up!

Catching Up, Squirrels, and Sewing

The sewing room was broken down for multiple days after we had the window installation.  I didn't want to completely reassemble the room before our monthly cleaners came.  I'll show something pretty first!  The DMC cat kit stitch is finished.  I used some washi tape I had on hand to wrap the hoop.  The stitchery needs a bath and press before I install and finish it in the hoop. The surface embroidery in white was pretty fussy to do, but sure looks cute; love the whiskers and smile too.

Here's the room before reassembly. It did not take too long to fix up.

The groaning fat quarter drawers were reinserted once the dresser was in place.  The newly operable window is open,  yay. During the reassembly of the cutting table items and things in Hoosier cabinet there were a couple of squirrels released...

There was a baggie of some green 3.5" tumblers that had been hanging around for far too long.  I quickly scrounged up some more green scraps to cut enough to make some placemats.  I'll square off the sides with a border to make the placemat wide enough.   The late night pic is making these prints look a lot grayer than they are. 

I also found this kitted up block my sister probably gave me out of a raffle basket she won and would never make herself! 

Whoever donated it had included a handy cutting diagram with the instructions, which is very much appreciated! I'll enjoy playing with these pieces. 

Some B blocks for the Plaidish2 quilt got assembled  as leader-enders while sewing the tumblers. There is lots to do on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma.  She was in town recently and we conferred over details.  That's the project box occupying the cutting table in these pics :)

Pladish2 Play

There has been some sewing going on--I did get the binding on the quilt of the moment,  Summer Breeze in 30's prints, but no pics yet. I could not resist sewing up at least one block for the Plaidish2 quilt, from all the colorful scraps I cut up over the weekend. Free pattern and tutorial on Kitchen Table Quilting.  

This is the A block.  That;s a lot of pieces but it I chain pieced to keep the rows straight. 

I pressed the rows as I usually do for a quilt top, odd rows to the left, even rows to the right.  Very scrappy block and it makes me happy to see all the pieces cut from the scrap drawers.  

Of course there was feline quality control by Mini.  She is still spending a lot of time lying on this paper mailer on the sewing room floor, so funny!

Mini disappears when this grandson comes over once a week when Papa picks him up from school.  Hunter was having a good time coloring a Paw Patrol character.  He also beat his grandparents in a game of Trouble; he would close his eyes and say what number he wanted to roll of the dice and darned if he didn't get it nine times out of ten!  

We've had a lot of windy days but not too severe.  It keeps the fog away and we have pretty deep blue skies. 

 Lots of jet trails too!  We hope more rain will come our way.  California is still very dry and our aquifers are low from the past years of drought.  Friday is nearly here! Looking forward to the weekend.

Design Wall Monday--Another Scrap Basket quilt and a Squirrel

Design Wall Monday is here again.  The month is flying by! See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

In my last post I mentioned another Scrap Basket quilt from designer Kim Brackett. I set aside a long-hoarded jelly roll and background fabric for this quilt at least a year ago, but have wanted to make the cover quilt, Hourglass, for much longer than that--I love it!

The jelly roll is Recess by American Jane (so very old it is out of print!).  I separated out the mini dot fabrics and light strips and will use the prints posed closest to the book for the blocks, with a white solid for background  The binding will be the measuring tape fabric; I'll supplement with mini dot fabrics if there is not enough  of that yardage.  There is a lot of cutting in my future.  

While rooting around in my Hoosier cabinet that houses all the project boxes, etc, I also found an unlabeled box which turned out to have pieces I cut months ago for a Plaidish 2 quilt.  That triggered a landslide of cutting from the overflowing scrap drawers.  I loved the  original Plaidish quilt I made and recently gifted to my niece in Arizona (free pattern and tutorial on Kitchen Table Quilting)

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours thinning the precut scrap and loose scrap drawers.  The pattern is a large throw but since the designer assembles it by blocks, you can make fewer blocks if you like.  The binding job on the Summer Breeze quilt got pushed to another day for this scrap box detour!  I've put away the Plaidish2 parts but will get them out to play again soon.  

Design Wall Monday--Plaidish Quilt

Design Wall Monday rolls around again.  See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The Plaidish Quilt top I offered to my niece Hannah was the project of the week.  I was able to finish the quilting over the weekend. Some of my favorite fabric scraps are in this quilt!

I used a gold Aurifil thread in the top and bottom and stitched in the ditch vertically and horizontally between all the blocks.  

Then I stitched along the narrow inserts in both directions, making an X in the center square. Simple and effective. After assembling a lot of saved leftover binding strips, I attached what I thought was a sufficient length, but as you can see from the blue and rust binding tails in the photo above, I was quite a bit short.  No matter, there were plenty of pieces to pick from.

The binding was finished by stitching in the ditch from the front.  I missed catching the edge in a bunch of spots so will need to hand sew those down and add my label.  My brother and sister-in-law will be driving out from Arizona next month, and the quilt will head home with them for Hannah.  I can't wait to build a  Plaidish2 quilt from my scraps and stash--including all the scraps I saved from my sister's trash pile last month!  Both patterns are free downloads on the Kitchen Table Quilting website, along with Erica's tutorials.

Design Wall Monday--May 17

 Design Wall Monday--see more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

There has only been a little time spent on the sewing machine lately, but a few projects got moved along.  

I made the binding for the star quilt and that got applied. 

I made the binding single fold from this cheddar print and will hand stitch it down.  A bunch of thread ends need to be buried as well. 

The Plaidish quilt was also layered with batting and backing and is resting for a bit.  I pulled a number of leftover binding pieces to use with this scrappy project.  

Recently I pulled a lot of dark squares out of the bulging 2.5" precut drawer for a Plaidish2 quilt.  The designer, Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting, designed this second scrappy quilt with limited dark fabrics and more lights and mediums, which are more plentiful in most people's stash. She designed it block style to make it simple to make the size you want. Free download is available from her store.   

I finished the quilting and binding on the strawberry block mini quilt for my sister.  Mom wants one now!

Leftover binding to the rescue again--there were two pink lengths perfect for this job.  I still plan to make a four block version for myself.  The strawberry quilt was the on the cover of the April 2021 APQ magazine. I think there may be a quiltalong happening on Instagram too.